journal article·2025-03

Non-fullerene acceptors with high crystallinity and photoluminescence quantum yield enable >20% efficiency organic solar cells

Chao Li, Jiali Song, Hanjian Lai, Huotian Zhang, Rongkun Zhou, Jinqiu Xu, Haodong Huang, Liming Liu, Jiaxin Gao, Yuxuan Li, Min Hun Jee, Zilong Zheng, Sha Liu, Jun Yan, Xian-Kai Chen, Zheng Tang, Chen Zhang, Han Young Woo, Feng He, Feng Gao, He Yan, Yanming Sun

Nature Materials· Volume 24· Issue 3
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Abstract

The rational design of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) with both high crystallinity and photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) is of crucial importance for achieving high-efficiency and low-energy-loss organic solar cells (OSCs). However, increasing the crystallinity of an NFA tends to decrease its PLQY, which results in a high non-radiative energy loss in OSCs. Here we demonstrate that the crystallinity and PLQY of NFAs can be fine-tuned by asymmetrically adapting the branching position of alkyl chains on the thiophene unit of the L8-BO acceptor. It was found that L8-BO-C4, with 2-butyloctyl on one side and 4-butyldecyl on the other side, can simultaneously achieve high crystallinity and PLQY. A high efficiency of 20.42% (certified as 20.1%) with an open-circuit voltage of 0.894 V and a fill factor of 81.6% is achieved for the single-junction OSC. This work reveals how important the strategy of shifting the alkyl chain branching position is in developing high-performance NFAs for efficient OSCs.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics · Conducting polymers and applications · Perovskite Materials and Applications

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